Pandora's Box
by mistycrow
Summary: "Yukine, I know you can hear me. I'm right here. Right beside you, why don't you turn around? Come on, come and greet me. I'm just a step away from you. Do you want me to get closer? Am I too far? Yukine, turn around and talk to me. I'm right here."


**Pandora's Box**

 _Yukine._

 _Yukine? Are you there?_

 _Yukine, I know you can hear me. I'm right here. Right beside you, why don't you turn around? Come on, come and greet me. I'm just a step away from you. Do you want me to get closer? Am I too far? Yukine, turn around and talk to me. I'm right here._

 **She had everything, almost.**

 **She was happy. She was free. She was young.**

He heard the girl whenever he passed that road – _Fukiyama Street*_ \- but he never dared to turn around. There was something in that voice that made him feel scared, the way darkness and storms did. He would feel the irrational fear creeping under his skin and settle in his heart, squeezing – until he could no longer breathe properly. The familiarity and the distant echo in his mind were usually too much for him.

He stopped taking that route when he ran errands after the third time. He didn't want to hear that eerie voice or feel the cold hands on his neck and wrists. Sometimes he wondered if it was an _ayakashi_ , a spirit that had a grudge against him for some reason – or maybe a _shinki_ with the ability of hiding himself.

The first one happened while he was still a mere _shinki_. His anger towards Yato and romantic attraction for Hiyori was too much for him; and he ran away. He walked down that road, alone and furious, and there was a voice calling out to him. His first instinct was to turn around, but there was no one behind him. He only saw the rustling of the leaves.

The second time it happened, he was going off to see Suzuha. When the girl spoke in his ear again, he felt a shiver run down his spine. He had thought that this voice, this desperate call for attention, was the _ayakashi_ on his back talking to him. But there it was again, reaching out to him once more. He couldn't move a muscle for ten seconds, before he started running.

Yato was with him during the third time it happened. The God abruptly turned towards Yukine, right after the first sentence, and Yukine wasn't sure if he was relieved or scared. Yato's eyes were a cold blue, but Yukine could see the glimpse of fear behind the thick wall of emptiness in the god's eyes. So he never mentioned anything and kept walking. After a few seconds, Yato followed.

 **She didn't have a single fault.**

 **She was loyal. She was kind. She never lied.**

 **She knew her place.**

The voice would sometimes enter his dreams. He didn't remember any of them – it was like something erased them the second he opened his eyes. Lately, after fighting with Yato's dad, the nightmares got more intense and the echo of her voice would linger, though he would never be able to guess the words. But the feeling, the _knowledge_ that she visited him when he was the most vulnerable scared him.

Everything about her reminded him of death.

There was no specific thing he could name about her. There were no distinct characteristic in her voice that he could use to search for – there was never an image of her – her face, in his mind, resembled _nora_. For some reason, he thought an evil spirit like her would never be a _shinki_ ; but he didn't know why he got to that conclusion.

She never told him to do anything but _turn around_. It wasn't like an _ayakashi_ trying to push him over the edge or _nora_ putting thoughts in his mind. But he labelled her as evil – for no reason at all – other than the fear he felt with her voice.

The worst nightmare came to him when he was first attacked by Yato's dad. The distant sound of cracking he heard during the fight had frightened him, even though he didn't say anything to Yato. Yukine always related the nightmare to that fear he felt during the day, just to give a reason to it.

She was there, in the middle of the road. No image, no face, not even the shape of her body stayed in his mind. When he tried to remember her features, it would turn either into Hiyori or _nora_ – she had no real body that he could recall.

There was snow everywhere. The houses were covered with pure, untouched whiteness. He could read _Fukiyama Street_ sign just behind her. There weren't any cars, or cats. He remembered all these details, because it reminded him of a ghost town. And whenever the thought of the scene, he would think, _"No one will come to save you."_

She raised her hand, or looked away, or wind blew her hair away from her face – he remembered nothing about her. Nothing but a mere second –

There came the flood. It was right behind her, starting slowly, then rising up to their ankles. There was blood soaking in the snow and covering them. She looked at Yukine, and Yukine knew she was smiling.

 _Come, Yukine. Come here. This is safe._

The one thing he remembered about her in that second was her hair. It was as blond as his, covering her face – and then she drowned in her own blood.

 **The one bad thing she had was curiosity.**

 **She wanted to** _ **know**_ **.**

 **That's what ended her.**

Yukine remembered that dream, and he wanted to ask Yato _why_. _Why_ that dream? Why none of the others, but that particular dream. He couldn't shake the effects of it off for days. He felt uncomfortable going near that road. Yato noticed, but he didn't say anything to Yukine. He was waiting for the young _shinki_ to approach his god on his own account.

But what would he say? That he dreamed of blood and death and a girl who called for him? That he was irrationally afraid of a _street?_ Fear of darkness was embarrassing enough for Yukine.

The girl, however, visited his dreams more frequently after that.

Yukine never remembered exactly what she did, but each night he would wake up soaked in sweat and trembling. His fears would wake Yato up, who would ask with genuine concern if he was alright or needed something. At some nights, Yukine would feel a strong need to hug Yato and cry – cry and let all of his fear out, tell him everything that had been happening to him – but he never did.

One night, Yato crawled next to him and gently woke him up from his nightmare. He wrapped his arm around Yukine and told him it was all over. Yukine didn't know if Yato knew what he dreamed of, or why he was dreaming of them, but the words were exactly what he needed to calm down. So he slept into Yato's embrace.

There was a distinct longing for a dad in that hug. Yukine wasn't sure who felt it the most. But they clung onto each other to fill that hole.

 **Everything she didn't know was hidden.**

 **The** _ **pithos**_ **was the keeper of truth.**

 **Knowledge was something she should never seek.**

One day, someone called Yato.

The delivery god answered the phone, enthusiastically and willing to comply with the wishes of his customer. But he suddenly froze, a cold, deadly look passed his face. He looked at Yukine, who was trying to understand his reaction, and apologized to the customer.

This was the first time Yato didn't grant a wish. Later, Yukine learned why.

The customer's house was on _Fukiyama Street_. It was the house at the right of the sign. It looked out of place with the others, probably belonging to a poor family. A distant smell of rot came from the garden. Yukine learned, way after the incident, that a man lived there on his own. His wife and two kids were dead and he used all of his money on alcohol.

That man was the person who killed Yukine.

 **And she opened the** _ **pithos**_ **.**

 **All the evil in gods reached the men.**

Yukine asked the first question in a graveyard.

There were three graves and one more was being dug. He was looking at the names when she started talking in his ear. She urged him to _come closer, turn around, you know I can protect you Yukine,_ but he didn't. He didn't even feel scared with her uncanny tone.

He knew the name on the grave belonged to him.

So he asked Yato, why.

"Why was I killed? Why did he kill me? Did I do something wrong? Why are they dead also? Please, tell me. You know it, for sure! I only wanted to talk to her. I didn't want to die. He was my father, Yato!"

He screamed, he cried and he punched Yato. He kicked the god's legs, chest – he tried to escape the deathly grip Yato had on him. There were _ayakashi_ appearing on his back, he could hear them – but most importantly, he could hear _her._ She was happy; laughing with all the joy in the world, ready to embrace Yukine. He knew going to her meant death, but he wanted to reach her. She was his bigger sister, after all.

But Yato was there. He held onto Yukine despite his cries, ignoring the burning skin and the curses his _shinki_ threw at him. He ignored the deliberate lies and the anger; he never accused Yukine of willingly hurting his master. He took all of his hatred and more.

Yukine let every single tear he held back when he was alive on Yato's shirt. The hate, the fear – he let the darkness, the corpse of his cat, the mourning he was never granted, the blood and the knife in his father's hand on Yato. And the god took them all, never letting Yukine go, never allowing anyone to intervene.

The _shinki_ held onto his god and gave him all the emotions of a broken boy.

Yato let Yukine go once, when Kazuma attempted to kill the _shinki_. He shielded Yukine from Kazuma's line, willing to let his body take the blow in order to protect his beloved _hafuri_. That was what brought Yukine back – his first instinct was to draw a line and protect his master. He didn't hesitate, he didn't think. He was supposed to protect his god, his jersey wearing bastard.

That second was, as Yukine would realize at the funeral of his father, when Yukine truly let his previous name go. Now, if you asked him, he wouldn't hesitate in telling you his name – the _shinki_ proudest of his given name.

His sister, now lying under all the earth, not even a _shinki_ nor an _ayakashi_ , disappeared. Only in distant memories and on rare nights did she visit Yukine – and she never stayed too long. Because she, or the image of her, knew that Yukine had a new family.

But you can still see the lonely little kid visiting the graveyard on his birthdays, with flowers in his right hand and books in his left, reading his family to sleep.

 **AN:** Hello. This is my first time writing a _Noragami_ fanfiction. I hope you liked it!

All of the characters belong to their rightful owners _Adachitoka_.

I don't know if anything similar will/did happen in the manga. I'm pretty sure this is _**not**_ how Yukine died, but this is my take on the issue.

I'm currently on the 59th chapter of the manga. I'm sorry if there were spoilers.

*: I don't know if this street exists or not.


End file.
